A Cloud-Based Retail Management System

Adewole Adewumi1, Stanley Ogbuchi1, and Sanjay MIsra1

1
Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria
{wole.adewumi, stanley.ogbuchi, sanjay.misra}@covenantuniversity.edu.ng

Abstract. Retail management systems have been deployed extensively as web

applications and stand-alone systems. However, in order to maximize return on
investment while also improving on retail business efficiency and performance,
it is imperative to explore newer technologies that can be leveraged. Cloud
computing shows great potential in this regard; and so it is our aim in this paper
to develop a cloud-based retail management system. We realize this by first
designing the framework of the system and then implementing it.

Keywords: Cloud computing, framework, retail management, point of sale.

1 Introduction

A retail management system is one that is used by retail-inclined organizations like

super markets, hardware stores, shopping outlets, e-commerce stores, bookstores,
pharmacies and a host of others [1]. Features such as Point of Sale (POS), inventory
management, reports & feedbacks, employee management, customer management,
and supply chain management are some key components of retail management
systems [2]. These systems have mostly been developed and deployed as Web
Applications and stand-alone systems [3]. Where they are implemented as stand-alone
systems, they tend to be complicated and expensive to maintain by businesses that
have little or no IT knowledge [4]. The amount and variety of hardware and software
needed to run these systems can also be discouraging [5]. Retailers would require a
whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update such systems.
In order to maximize return on investment, newer technologies can be explored.
Cloud computing in particular shows great potential in this regard [6].
Cloud computing represents a radical change in the way information technology
(IT) services are offered to the public [6]. Its concept relies on sharing computing
resources rather than owning local servers in order to handle applications [7]. Cloud
solutions can be implemented under three major service models namely: Software as
a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
They can be deployed as private clouds, public clouds, community clouds or hybrid
clouds [8]. It is of utmost importance that cloud computing be greatly applied in the
retail industries because it transverses borders and contributes greatly to any Nation’s
economy [9]. However, as retailers begin to gravitate towards the cloud-based
approach to retail management, they will desire among other things – a platform
independent solution and one that is easy to customize to suit changing requirements.
A framework that can serve as a guide for implementation and deployment is also
desirable [10]. The rest of this paper is thus structured as follows: Section 2 reviews
existing systems in this domain. In Section 3, we focus on the design of the proposed
system. In Section 4, we implement the retail management solution called SkyRetail
based on our design in Section 3. The key user interface modules are also highlighted
and discussed in this section. Section 5 concludes the paper.

2 Review of Existing Systems

Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System is an application from Microsoft that

offers small and midsize retailers a complete point of sale (POS) solution that can be
adapted to meet unique requirements [11]. It provides centralized control for multi-
store retailers, and integrates with Microsoft Office system programs. It also offers
benefits in; ease of use, automation, efficiency, flexible reporting and scalability. It
can be deployed for any form of retail enterprise from pharmaceuticals to grocery
stores. The system however is not cloud-based and also targets businesses that run
Windows operating system – thus it is not cross-platform.
Lightspeed Cloud is another complete point of sale system [12]. It offers a range of
complete retail solution for retailers. Among other things, it offers access to the
system from both web and mobile browsers. It also handles inventory,
customers/employee management and report generation. According to Lightspeed –
the software company that developed the solution, their retail solution is: easy to use;
continuously upgraded; cloud based; able to run on Web and mobile browsers; always
available; easy to set up and install. The drawback of this system however is that it is
not available outside of North America.
Epicor Cloud Retail Software is a SaaS retail solution from Epicor Solutions [13].
It serves small to mid-sized retailers who want to leverage their insufficient IT
resources. Epicor delivers a model that significantly reduces capital investment,
implementation challenges, and on-going requirements of managing IT. With Epicor,
retailers are able to integrate their sales channels, order management, POS systems,
inventory, and other operations for access to right information at the appropriate time.
Epicor cloud retail software supports: merchandising, store operations, CRM, audit
and operations management and planning. The system however is difficult to
customize so as to suit a particular organization.
From the drawbacks identified in the existing systems, we intend to realize a retail
management solution that is cloud-based; platform independent; able to run on Web
and mobile browsers and also easy to customize by any retail organization. This is the
motivation behind this paper.
3 Design of the Proposed System

Being software, we incorporate the retail management system into our cloud design
framework by modeling it at the SaaS layer - above the PaaS and IaaS layer. The
design framework of the proposed system uses a layered structure as depicted in Fig.
1.

Cloud&Service&Consum ers&

Cloud-enabled devices

Retail Management System Modules

Sales Inventory Customer

Managemen Managemen Managemen
t t t

Purchase Returns Report

Managemen Managemen Generation
t t

Cloud Platform Providers

Language Runtimes / Data Storage Services

Cloud Infrastructure

Network Server Storage

Fig. !1. Framework of the proposed retail management system

3.1 Cloud Service Consumers

This refers to devices that will be used to access and use the retail management
system. Such devices should be cloud-enabled and include: laptops, tablet computers
and smartphones.

3.2 Retail Management System Modules

The proposed retail management system (shown with dashed lines in Fig. 1) will have
the following key features: inventory management that makes it easy to add and track
retail items; customer management that helps to keep record of customers thus
building relationship with them; purchase management to help manage the purchase
of supplies; sales management to provide a complete point of sale solution integrated
to help deliver sales efficiently; and report generation.

3.3 Cloud Platform Providers

Quite a number of platform providers exist depending on the preference and choice of
retail organizations. They generally provide language runtimes and data storage
services for their platform. Notable among these cloud platform providers are
Microsoft – with their Windows Azure cloud platform [14] [15] and Google – with its
Google App Engine platform [16] [17]. With Windows Azure, applications can be
built using any language, framework or tool particularly Python, Java, Ruby, Node.js
and PHP. SQL Azure is a service for managing Microsoft SQL databases. The Google
App Engine platform provides language runtimes for Python, Java, PHP and Go
programming languages. Google Cloud SQL is the service provided for maintaining
and administering MySQL databases.

3.4 Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud platform providers leverage their platforms with their own cloud infrastructure.
So Microsoft and Google as well as other platform providers support their respective
platforms through their cloud infrastructure, which includes: networks, servers and
storage.

4 Implementation of the Proposed System

We implemented a cloud-based retail management solution called SkyRetail based in

the design in Section 3. The cloud platform provider used was Microsoft with its
Windows Azure platform. In order to realize the retail management system modules,
we leveraged on Open Source Point of Sale – an open source POS solution developed
in PHP and hosted on SourceForge repository and the Web address is given as -
http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensourcepos/. The modules of the retail management
system are discussed in the sub-sections that follow:

4.1 Home Page

This is the first page the user is redirected to after logging into the system. It displays
a list of available modules to that particular user. It is shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Sky Retail Home Page

4.2 Customer Management Module

This administers the customer relationship management of the system. Here, the user
can add new customers; view customers’ details and also make changes. The
Customers link on the application homepage or menu bar launches this module. The
page lists out existing customers associated with the retail store. The tick box on the
first column is to select customer(s) so that operations such as deleting and emailing
can be carried out. Customer information can be updated by clicking the edit link on
the last column. A new customer is added by filling the form displayed after pressing
“New Customer” button. The search box allows the operator to search for a customer
by typing a string, which could be part of the customer’s name. Multiple customer
information can be added to the system by clicking excel import button. The module’s
interface is shown in Fig. 3.
 Fig. 3. Overview of the Customer Management Module

4.3 Inventory Management Module

This controls the inventory of the retail store. It provides options to add items, view
the inventory details of a particular item and also make updates or changes to items.
The user can group similar items into item kits. The module is depicted in Fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Overview of the Inventory Management Module

4.4 Supplier Management Module

This provides an interface for managing the retail vendors associated with the store.
The Suppliers hyperlink on the application home page or menu bar directs the user to
this module. A list of existing store suppliers is displayed. Provided are different links
and buttons to conduct varying operations. The tick box on the first column is used to
select customer(s) for performing operations such as deleting and emailing. A
supplier detail can be updated by clicking the Edit link on the last column. A new
supplier is added by filling the form displayed after pressing “New Supplier” button
in Fig. 5.
 Fig. 5. Overview of the Supplier Management Module

4.5 Reports

This module makes it possible to generate various reports based on a retail store’s
transactions. The interface is depicted in Fig. 6. Sample reports generated by the
system are shown in Figs. 7 – 8

Fig. 6. This figure shows the view of detailed sales report

Fig. 7. This figure shows the graphical view of sales summary report.
 Fig. 8. This figure shows the view of Sales receipt.

4.6 Purchases Module

This module manages the purchase of items from the suppliers. Clicking the
“Purchase” link on the application menu bar or home page directs the user to this
module. Items are added by simply searching for the item in the Find/Scan Item
search box and selecting from the search dropdown. More items can be added by
repeating this procedure. The sales detail for each item can be added in the text boxes
provided. The supplier involved can be optionally added if the supplier exists in the
system by typing the supplier’s name into Select Supplier text box. The user then
selects the payment type and inputs the payment amount tendered. The Finish button
is clicked to complete the purchase order. The purchase is completed and the receipt
is displayed. The purchase module is depicted in Fig. 9.

Fig. 9. This figure shows the overview of purchase module.

4.7 Sales Management Module

This modules handles item sale processes. The Sales hyperlink on the application
menu bar/home page launches the module. Items are added by simply searching for
the item in the Find/Scan Item search box and selecting from the search drop down.
More items can be added by repeating this procedure. The sales detail for each item
can be added in the text boxes provided. The user can optionally choose to add the
customer involved if the customer exists in the system. The user then selects the
payment type and input the payment amount tendered. The Add Payment button is
then clicked to submit payment. The user can decide to either complete the sale by
clicking the Complete Sale button or suspend the sale by clicking the Suspend Sale
button. If the sale is completed then the receipt will be displayed. Fig. 10 shows this
module.

Fig. 10. This figure shows the overview of the sales module.

4.8 Returns Management Module

This manages the return of the sold items of the retail store. For purchase returns, the
Purchase link is clicked, then from the resulting page the user changes the mode to
Returns by selecting returns from the purchase select dropdown. All necessary fields
are filled and the Finish button is clicked to complete the purchase return. Clicking
the Sales link and changing the register mode to returns can manage sales returns. The
necessary fields are to be completed before the sales returns can be successful. This is
depicted in Figs. 11 and 12.
 Fig. 11. This figure shows the Purchase Return module.

Fig. 12. This figure shows the Sales Return module

5 Conclusion

The cloud approach to implementing a retail management system adopted in this

project offers massive benefits to retail organizations in managing retail operations. It
will help them to overcome the high costs of running and maintaining technology
infrastructure in-house. Also, the retailer can easily scale up or scale down compute
resources effectively as the volume of the demand may be. Cloud computing will
allow the retail organization to focus more attention on core activities of efficiency of
workflow and business operations rather that maintaining servers or systems.
Furthermore, Sky retail has demonstrated the viability of the framework on which it is
developed.
The retail management solution developed in this paper needs to be tested and
validated by would-be users and so usability studies of the system will be conducted
as part of future work. Also, as a way of improving the core features of Sky Retail we
will be integrating third-party tools such as a payment gateway to process card
payments and also SMS services to deliver instant messages or reports to the users.

References

1. Bajaj, C., Srivastava, N. V., Tuli, R.: Retail management, vol. 8. Oxford University Press
(2005)
2. Stevenson, W. J., Hojati, M.: Operations management, vol. 8. Boston: McGraw-Hill/Irwin
(2007)
3. Andersen, R.: The rhetoric of enterprise content management (ECM): Confronting the
assumptions driving ECM adoption and transforming technical communication, Technical
Communication Quarterly, vol. 17 (2007) 61-87
4. Power, D.: Supply chain management integration and implementation: a literature review,
Supply chain management, vol. 10, (2005) 252-263
5. Carr, N. G.: IT doesn't matter, Educause Review, vol. 38, (2003) 24-38
6. Marston, S. Li, Z., Bandyopadhyay, S., Zhang, J., Ghalsasi, A.: Cloud computing—The
business perspective, Decision Support Systems, vol. 51 (2011) 176-189
7. Rosenthal, A., Mork, P., Li, M. H., Stanford, J., Koester, D., Reynolds, P.: Cloud
computing: a new business paradigm for biomedical information sharing, Journal of
Biomedical Informatics, vol. 43 (2010) 342-353
8. Sotomayor, B., Montero, R. S., Llorente, R. M., Foster, I.: Virtual infrastructure
management in private and hybrid clouds, IEEE Internet Computing, vol. 13 (2009) 14-22.
9. Moessner, K. Le Gall, F., Cousin, P.: Internet of Things Strategic Research and Innovation
Agenda, Internet of Things: Converging Technologies for Smart Environments and
Integrated Ecosystems, vol. 7 (2013)
10.Zhang, Z., Lee, M. K., Huang, P., Zhang, L., Huang, X.: A framework of ERP systems
implementation success in China: An empirical study, International Journal of Production
Economics, vol. 98 (2005) 56-80
11.Microsoft Dynamics RMS, Microsoft Dynamics RMS Overview, Available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/rms-overview.aspx Date accessed: 29th July,
2014
12.LightSpeed, Light Speed Retail, Available at: http://www.lightspeedretail.com, Date
accessed: 29th July, 2014
13.Epicor, Epicor Cloud Retail Software, Available at:
http://www.epicor.com/Cloud/Pages/Cloud-Retail.aspx Date accessed: 29th July, 2014
14.Hill, Z., Li, J., Mao, M., Ruiz-Alvarez, A., Humphrey, M.: Early observations on the
performance of Windows Azure, 19th ACM International Symposium on High Performance
Distributed Computing (2010) 367-376
15.Windows Azure, Microsft Cloud Platform, Available at: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/,
Date accessed: 29th July, 2014
16.Buyya, R., Yeo, C., Venugopal, S., Broberg, J., Brandic, I.: Cloud computing and emerging
IT platforms: Vision, hype, and reality for delivering computing as the 5th utility, Future
Generation computer systems, vol. 25 (2009) 599-616
17.Google App Engine, Google App Engine: Platform as a Service, Available at:
https://developers.google.com/appengine/, Date accessed: 29th July, 2014.